Bill Of Rights

A divided state Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved the nation's first "bill of rights" to protect wireless and other telephone customers from deceptive marketing and billing. Concluding a four-year process, the PUC voted 3 to 2 on a compromise proposal meant to assuage the objections of the largely unfettered wireless industry. But it left consumer advocates dissatisfied, wireless companies upset and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger disappointed.

California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, ran into skeptical questioning Wednesday from Senate Democrats for speeches in which she referred to the New Deal era as "the triumph of our socialist revolution" and disputed whether the Bill of Rights applied to the states.

September 21, 2003 | John W. Dean, John W. Dean is a former Nixon White House counsel, a Findlaw.com columnist and the author of several books, including a forthcoming biography of Warren G. Harding.

If you don't believe that America's war on terrorism threatens your freedoms, delving into any one of these books will change your mind as well as advise you of the rights and liberties that are in true jeopardy. This collection of new works, which address the effect of the war on terrorism on civil liberties, contains one remarkably consistent theme: The federal government has overreacted to the terrorism threat and, in doing so, has traded freedoms of all Americans for an illusion of security.

For decades, the nation's founding documents were treated like second-class citizens, pressed under the glass surfaces of outdated display cases that were slowly crumbling and made public viewing difficult. Now, after a painstaking and pricey restoration, the hallowed pages of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights are newly enshrined in gleaming, $4-million gold-plated display cases and basking in a glory long overdue.

There has been another assault on our Bill of Rights ("Court Gives Leeway to Interrogate," May 28). In its recent ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court held in the case of Chavez vs. Martinez that the police and government investigators can force a person to talk, as long as those admissions are not used to prosecute the person. According to your article, Justice Clarence Thomas' view is that "despite a common perception, the Constitution does not bar police from using pressure -- short of torture -- to obtain information from suspects or witnesses."

Regarding "Aliens Are Not Part of the Club Yet," Commentary, May 4: I'd like to suggest that Amitai Etzioni read the U.S. Constitution again. It's not that long. The human rights our Constitution protects again and again are not the rights of the citizens but those of "persons." Ever since 9/11, it seems that it has become a "dirty secret," which should not be bandied about, that the Constitution protects all persons' human rights, regardless of their citizenship. Only when it comes to political rights does the Constitution meticulously specify the requirements of citizenship.

An original copy of the Bill of Rights, stolen from the North Carolina statehouse during the Civil War, was recovered in an undercover sting, the FBI said Wednesday. Authorities learned of the document after a broker contacted the National Constitution Center, a museum being built in Philadelphia's historic district. Museum president Joseph Torsella thought it might be the copy belonging to Pennsylvania, one of five states that have lost their copies over the years.

The money world and the mommy world are sorely out of balance. There is no way to offer the care and nurturing most mothers would like to lavish on their children and yet maintain the paycheck that allows dignity, family and career to survive. Even for mothers who can afford it, there's no easy way to swap a career for a stay-at-home life to raise kids.

Another major health bill ran aground in Congress on Thursday, one day after legislation to expand Medicare to cover prescription drugs died in the Senate. Prospects dimmed for a bill that would give new protections for patients of managed health-care plans, as Senate Democrats announced that negotiations with the White House on the issue had collapsed. "I regret that we continue to be unable to reach an agreement on [a] patients' bill of rights," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.

Re "Detention of a Citizen Questioned," June 12: The detention of Jose Padilla, an American citizen, in the absence of criminal charges, an arraignment or access to legal counsel--and the lack of outrage in the press about this action--should frighten and anger every American. Whether the 1942 Supreme Court decision cited by the Justice Department is a relevant precedent or not, the bottom line is that we are being asked to place unquestioning trust in Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and President Bush, who at best are fallible and at worst may act in bad faith.